Plants 60-75 cm tall. Rhizome ascending, apex densely clothed with dark brown scales. Fronds clustered; stipe dark chestnut at base, upper part paler, shiny, ca. 30 cm × 2 mm, adaxially narrowly grooved; lamina 2- or 3-pinnatipartite, ovate in outline, ca. 45 × 25 cm; lateral pinnae 7-9 pairs, subopposite, decumbent, 14-18 × 3.5-4 cm, base slightly attenuate-cuneate, deeply pectinately divided to within ca. 3 mm of costa, apex acutely lanceolate caudate (3-5 cm); basal pinnae pair largest, each shortly stalked and with a basiscopic pinnule near base similar to main part of pinna but smaller; segments 15-18 pairs, alternate, oblique, narrowly lanceolate, 13-25 × ca. 4 mm, margin not densely serrate, interval equal to width of segment; apical pinnae same as middle lateral pinnae in shape and size, but cuneate and decurrent at base; costae prominent abaxially, below middle part maroon, upper 1/3 part straw-colored, straw-colored and slightly grooved adaxially; veins anastomosing to form a series of narrow areoles along costules, width of areole ca. 1/2 wing width to almost same size, occasionally incised, veinlet in segment 2-forked; lamina brown-green, herbaceous when dried, glabrous.

Pteris maclurioides is closely related to P. maclurei but is smaller with pinnae 14-18 × 3.5-4 cm, segments 13-25 × ca. 4 mm, 3-5 mm apart, costae with ca. 3 mm wide wings, and areoles from 1/2 as wide as wing to as wide.

Ching and S. H. Wu (Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 3(1): 81. 1990) gave a brief note on "Pteris maclurioides var. tonkinensis" (中越凤 尾蕨 zhong yue feng wei jue) from Guangxi and N Vietnam, but as it lacked a Latin description or diagnosis and no type was indicated the name was not validly published (Melbourne Code, Art. 39.1 and 40.1). It differed by the more oblique pinnae, longer basal pinnae, to 30 cm, and the larger segments, 35-45 × 5-6 mm, with tapering apices.

● Open forests; ca. 400 m. Guangdong (Shixing), ?Guangxi [?N Vietnam].